Earth Hour Current Affairs

The twelfth edition of Earth Hour was observed across the world on 24 March 2018 to take a global call on climate change. To mark this day, cities worldwide turned their lights off for one hour from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm local time.

Give Up to Give Back Initiative

On the occasion of Earth Hour, World Wide Fund (WWF)-India made strong pitch for “Give Up to Give Back”. This initiative aims to inspire organisations, institutions and individuals to make choice to curb some habits, practices and lifestyles that burden our lives and environment. It includes taking steps like giving up giving up fossil fuels, single-use plastics, giving up lonely car rides for your employees, give up e-waste.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour is people’s movement inspiring individuals to take stand against climate change. It is organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) with an aim to enable harmonious existence of human and wildlife. It aims at encouraging people to turn off their non-essential equipments to promote conservation and sustainable energy. Its goal is to raise awareness for sustainable energy use and create a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle. The first Earth Hour was held on March 31, 2007 in Sydney, Australia. Now it has become world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment, inspiring millions of people to take action for our planet and nature.

The eleventh edition of the Earth Hour was observed across the world on 25 March 2017 to take a global call on climate change. To mark this day, cities worldwide turned their lights off from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm local time.

This year millions of people from some 170 countries and territories had taken part in the annual event in a bid to highlight global warming caused by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas to drive cars and power plants.

Environmental activists this year also have focused to raise awareness on another problem that gets far less attention: Light Pollution.

About Earth Hour

Earth Hour is an annual international event organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The first Earth Hour was held on March 31, 2007 in Sydney, Australia.

It is held annually in end of March month to encourage everyone to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The event encourages households and businesses to turn off their lights and electrical appliances for one hour at the appointed time to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change.

Its goal is to raise awareness for sustainable energy use and create a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle.

Since its inception, it has become annual global environmental event (movement). Now it has grown to engage more than 7,000 cities and towns across 172 countries worldwide.

What is Light Pollution?

Light pollution is artificial brightening of the night sky caused by man-made lightening sources, which has a disruptive effect on natural cycles and inhibits the observation of stars and planets. It is also known as photo pollution or luminous pollution and basically is the misdirected or obtrusive of natural light by excessive artificial light. More than 80% of humanity lives under skies saturated with artificial light.

Components of light pollution

Glare: excessive brightness that causes visual discomfort.

Skyglow: brightening of the night sky over inhabited areas.

Clutter: bright, excessive and confusing groupings of light sources.

Light trespass: light falling where it is not intended or needed.

Effects of Light Pollution

Disturbs the reproductive cycles of some animals.

Disturbs migration of birds that navigate using the stars and to disorient night-flying insects.

In humans, it disturbs circadian rhythms that regulate hormones and other bodily functions.

Excessive blue light emitted form LEDs directly affects sleep pattern in Human by suppressing the production of the hormone melatonin, which mediates the sleep-wake cycle in humans.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF): It is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) working in the field of the biodiversity conservation, and the reduction of humanity’s footprint on the environment.